Sustainability Assessment of Regional Development Based on the Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Northwest China

Ecological Footprint model is an important method to evaluate the sustainability of regional development. This paper assesses the area demand of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region by calculates the Ecological Footprint and the Ecological Carrying Capacity in the 20 years from 1986 to 2005.The results show that Ecological Deficits occurred and then continued to increase, which demonstrate that great human-environment conflicts existed, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was in a state of unsustainable development, which poses a grave threat to the stability and sustainable development of the regional ecological economic system.